I still think its a great lens for the price and versitile with the zoom.

Cons:

A little heavy.

I posted a review back on Sept. 15, 2008. I put a couple of links on there, one being an airplane I happened to capture practicing for an air show I guess. A few weeks ago that same plane showed up but this time there was no colored smoke. I took the camera off the tripod as I was looking for birds and began to shoot. I don't use the OS function on the tripod or even hand holding that much. I always use F8 and with the Canon 50D the higher ISO helps with the darker shots. Here is a link to the new slide show, I left off many of the photos and just tried to highlight the show he was giving me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpealit/sets/72157624756355073/
It would be nice to find this guy so I could show him how good he is. I hope this helps some of you make up your mind. I do wish I could afford a Canon 500 but on the upside, I like the idea of pulling the lens back and getting down to the 150mm, especially when a flock of birds comes by. One other thing, I use this lens almost every day that I can for wildlife.
Bob

Good range, price is good, takes good pictures for the average guy like me.

Cons:

You have to buy the hood separate and no zoom lock.

I have take some pretty nice pictures while using this lens even though it has a poor rating. At the time this was about the only long lense I thought I would need and afford. I was only starting out in the DSLR camera. Before that I was using the Sony DSC H1 with a range of 36-432mm and image stabilization. I fell in love with the DSLR though and moved on. Here is a link for the last hike I used this lense. The first 6 photos are from a different hike and a different lense. I think this 75-300 took some pretty nice photos:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpealit/sets/72157606220632768/
There all not good but I send a slide show out when I'm done hiking to the people in my address book with an explanation of the days activities. I don't think its as bad a lens as people say it is. Just my opinion. Bob

I have the Canon 75-300. Its rated pretty bad but I think it takes really good pictures. So thats who I am, I'm not the best judge but I wanted a lense so I wouldn't have to change while I was on the hikes or driving in the car. This lense does it all for me, from inside the house with the grandkids to pulling over in the car and taking shots out the window and hiking. I never leave home without it. As to wether its sharp or not, nobody has ever complained when I send out the slide shows. If I'm at an old iron mine, I don't have to back up very far to fit everything in the picture, or scenery, its just great. If I see a bird or a bear, I can get it with this lens and with the crop factor its about 28X400. I had the Tamron 28-300 and was not satisfied with the 28 end. It was never wide enough, sometimes you can't get back far enough to fit your picture in, with the 18-250 you can do it. If it was image stabilized it would be even better. Bob

I see in the forum some of you are having problems with this lens. Maybe I'm lucky or just don't know enough. I've been using it for a few weeks now and just love it. It looks like I'm carrying a bazoka around with me in some of the places I walk. The first link I shot a last week. I was hiking around the Walkill River National Wildlife Refuge at Liberty Marsh and heard this airplane. I thought he might be spraying the fields but when I got out of the tree line I guess he was practicing for an air show or something. Its all the pictures I took in about 5 minutes. I only cropped the one of the cockpit. I had the camera on sport mode. Some came out pretty good I think but again, I'm no expert.

The next slide show is a place I go to a few times a week, it Hyper Humus in Newton, NJ and its a Wildlife Management Area which means anyone can go in there and walk, hunt, fish, boat, bike, and horseback ride. So sometimes getting pictures is tough but I think some of these came out pretty good with this lens. These were all handheld. Bob